Gender sensitive education – A literature review of relevant toolkits for secondary school teachers in Eritrea

Abstract

The thesis has been carried out in cooperation with the Finnish non-governmental organization Finn Church Aid’s Eritrea office. Finn Church Aid has an ongoing “Promoting Gender Equality in Eritrea through Teacher Education” -project in Eritrea for which there is a need for a gender sensitive education toolkit for teachers in the country. Gender sensitive education can be the key in including girls and boys equally in education and providing them with the same opportunities for the future.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate existing gender sensitive education toolkits for teachers in low- and middle-income countries to find prevailing themes essential for secondary school teachers working in the Eritrean context. The literature review produced recommendations for the development of a gender sensitive education toolkit for Finn Church Aid’s use.

The material consists of nine English-language gender sensitive education toolkits for secondary school teachers or facilitators in low- and middle-income countries. The material was obtained from the Internet with the search engine Google. The material was evaluated and arranged by the systematic literature review method and analyzed by qualitative thematic analysis.

Four prevalent themes were found in the toolkits: gender concepts, gender sensitive pedagogy, health and community. These prevalent themes all included several subthemes. The themes were found to be essential for a secondary school teacher in Eritrea developing his/her pedagogy towards gender sensitivity.

It was concluded that there is a need for gender sensitive education toolkits in low- and middle-income countries as so few were found online. In a new toolkit, care should be taken to ensure that the teacher has a clear understanding of what gender sensitive education is and what gender stereotypes he/she might have. Only after this can the teacher apply his/her skills to introducing gender sensitivity to the school environment. The teacher should pay special attention to: include the students in learning, setting up a gender sensitive classroom, use of language and teaching materials, health and maturity issues, and involving parents and community in the gender sensitivity effort. It was recommended that all these themes be included in the new toolkit.

In addition to the teacher’s endeavours, governments need to step up to make gender equality the norm. Further research is needed on how these toolkits are used and what effects they have had on school environments.